Back in Town
by Kat24mlr
Summary: For Audrey. Inspired by ""Hear you me" by Jimmy Eat World. Just one chapter. J/A


_**Just a little something to start the weekend off with. I was listening to "Hear you me" by Jimmy Eat World and it inspired me. This would be at the end of the day season 7, and I can't see this going farther than one chapter. Enjoy!**_

Audrey strolled down a busy street in Washington D.C. It wasn't too cold but there had been talks of snow in the forecast. Now looking towards the sky, Audrey didn't see any sign of it.

It had been a long time that she had done this, walk the streets of Washington in the snow. It had been one of her favorite things to do back when she lived here.

It was impossible not to think about him though. Some of her best memories of him were here, around every corner, and on every street. It was the reason she had moved just north to Connecticut, and why she had quit working for her father.

It was starting to get colder, but Audrey didn't notice. She was lost in her thoughts; her feet kept going as if they already knew where they wanted to go, and she let them.

Coming to a park bench, she stopped. It seemed all too familiar, but Audrey couldn't quite remember why.

She decided to sit and watch the people go by. There were shoppers loaded with bags, couples holding hands, and the occasional person walking home from work.

Every where she looked, Audrey thought she saw him. It would always be the same though. He would look up and smile. Sometimes he would even start to walk towards her, but she'd lose him in the crowd.

Her therapist thought it was normal for people with PTSD to imagine people they had lost. If that was true, then she had had PTSD since the day Jack died. When she had to Washington after the funeral, she would walk the streets at night in the snow sometimes crying, other times she would just walk for hours and hours emotionless as if all the life had been drained from her.

When Jack had been dragged off to China, Audrey had come back to Washington after weeks of searching. She walked the streets thinking about everything that had happened that day. She would think about how if she had said something, stopped him from leaving, he wouldn't be stuck in some prison cell in China.

Suddenly it came back to her why the bench was so significant.

_She had been sitting in the exact same spot, reading reports, searching through files for any information on where Jack was. _

_An older man had sat beside her. He was around 70, dressed in a brown suit and hat. He laid his cane against the bench and stared off into the crowds. _

_Audrey had barely noticed him, as she read the file in front of her. After a few minutes she put it down, realizing that it wasn't going to give her the answers she was looking for; another dead end. _

_She felt like giving up. Her heart was breaking with each passing day, as the reality that Jack might never come back sank further and further in her chest. _

_Tears came to her eyes and she quickly swatted them away. She had done enough crying today, after having found a picture of him and her amidst the things she had collected from Diane's. _

_The man sat up and retrieved a tissue from his breast pocket. She thanked him and wiped her eyes. _

_It began to snow softly and the man removed the hat from his head, turning his head up to the falling flakes._

_Audrey did the same and closed her eyes, letting the snow fall on her face. _

"_I've been waiting for the snow to start." The man said catching some in his hand and watching it melt. _

_Audrey gave him a small sad smile nodding. "I've always loved it in the winter, when the sky turns pink and the snow comes and covers everything."_

"_You know some say it can mend a broken heart."_

_Audrey nodded, wondering if her emotions were that evident on her face._

"_Don't worry, he'll come back; he still has something to live for" The man said so nonchalantly that Audrey almost didn't realize what he said. _

"_What?"_

"_He'll come back"_

_Audrey starred at him wondering how he would have known this, and all the while hoping to god he was right. _

"_You can't know that for sure, no one can"_

_The man stood up and brushed off his coat and put his hat back on, tilting it slightly. He reached for his cane and begun to walk away from her. _

"_Wait, how do you know all this?" Audrey called after him._

_The man stopped and turned to her. "He promised you didn't he?"_

_Before she could answer, he was gone. _

Looking back, Audrey still wondered how he knew. If he really even knew or was just making it up. Either way he was right. Jack had come back. Just not to her.

She wondered where Jack was now, if he had found someone else. No matter what anyone said, her father and friends, she knew she would never get over him. She couldn't. He was it for her; the one person that would ever truly have her whole heart.

It began to snow suddenly, and the words "He'll come back" played through her mind. She wondered if he ever would. Lifting her face to the sky, she did the same thing she had done sitting on the bench with the old man. It didn't fix her broken heart, but it did put a smile back on her face.

After a few seconds, she got up and pushed some snow off of her coat.

She took maybe three steps and stopped just in front of her was the old man. He seemed to nod to a spot just behind her before smiling at her and tipping his hat.

She figured it was her mind playing tricks on her again, and was about to leave when a voice from behind her stopped her dead in her tracks.

"Audrey?"

She didn't turn around and her heart seemed to stop. She stood still, feeling the snow fall onto her face.

"Audrey"

She couldn't take it any longer, and spun around expecting to see nothing but the lonesome park bench.

To her surprise, he didn't disappear.

He looked just as she remembered, his hair was messy, and his jaw still had a bit of stubble to it. He had on jeans and a black shirt, as well as a black coat. He also wore a bullet proof vest and a gun by his side as if he had come straight from a mission.

She found she was stuck in the same spot as he moved closer towards her. Again she waited for him to disappear, and it was only until he was about a foot away she realized that he wasn't a figment of her imagination.

"Jack?"

He nodded and gave her one of his half smiles that would make her go weak at the knees.

"What are you doing here?" Her voice sounded small and her words came out faster than normal.

"I'm back in D.C. for awhile I guess. The president pardoned me and my trial was cancelled."

"It's over then?"

Jack smiled again and closed the gap between them. Before she could say anything else, he pulled her to him and kissed her. The kiss was short and ended before she could respond.

They stood there in the snow, with their foreheads against each others.

"It's over, I'm not going back. I could never walk away from you again. It would kill me"

"You're back for good then?"

"I'm back" he said reassuring her.

Audrey smiled her first real smile in a long time. "What took you so long?" She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him this time. It was more passionate then the last and Audrey couldn't help but be happy. This was all she had wanted for the past six somewhat years.

They pulled away, each breathing heavily. Jack chuckled and kissed her cheek.

"I promised you didn't I"


End file.
